Ma to speak at US forum on TRA via videoconference

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is scheduled to speak by videoconference on the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) 30 years after its enactment at a seminar to be held in Washington tomorrow.

It will be the first time Ma has held a videoconference with a foreign institution since he took office last May. The organizer, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), has invited experts in China affairs to take part in panel discussions at the seminar, titled “US-Taiwan Relations in a New Era: Looking Forward 30 Years After the Taiwan Relations Act.”

Ma said yesterday that the TRA was the principal pillar for maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan-US relations, and that the US law has encouraged Taipei, Washington and Beijing to maintain peace and work for mutual benefit.

Ma said that since the TRA was enacted 30 years ago, six US presidents have loyally implemented it and continued to add constructive opinions to make it a pedestal of cross-strait peace and Taiwan-US relations.

“The writers of the law might not have expected it, but it gives full play to its effect,” Ma said while meeting members of the CSIS at the Presidential Office.

The US delegation was led by the center's president and former US deputy secretary of defense John Hamre.

Ma told the foreign guests that between 2000 and last year, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait had encountered many obstacles and that there was a lack of trust between Taipei and Washington.

Since he took office last May, Ma said he had made aggressive efforts to improve relations with Beijing and Washington.

With cross-strait rapprochement, Ma said that relations with the US had improved and mutual trust was restored.

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